Sydney

Holy shit I am in love. This city is INCREDIBLE. I certainly didn't want to leave and I can't believe I was there. Definitely a "is this real life?..." moment. Anyway....Now for what went on and all that we did.

Also, I apologize beforehand with how long this is going to be...

    To start. We left at about 915pm Thursday night and it was an overnight bus to Sydney. I didn't think how miserable this was really going to be. I was so uncomfortable the entire time and half of the time I didn't even know if I was asleep or crazy or pissed or what. It was almost like limbo. It was a bizarre experience that is for sure. I have never hated a carride more than this one. By about 545am we made a stop and I got a little to eat and then after that I somehow fell asleep for a good chunk of time. I was probably just so exhausted, I could have been hung upside down and still fallen asleep. Maybe around......730-815am the bus driver tells us to wake up. And what do you know....we are in North Sydney, huge gleaming buildings all around us. It was a great feeling to wake up to Sydney. We soon made out way closer to the harbor and then we saw it. THE HARBOUR BRIDGE. It was right in front of us. Oh it was awesome to see, this structure of granite and steel, the pride of Sydney. We pull around closer and what happens to be the very first thing we are doing? Oh I don't know....walking across the Harbour Bridge. Oh there was nothing more exciting. No one was tired, everyone was happy excited and it was exhilarating. We saw the opera house from the bridge and we just couldn't believe it. Seeing that for the first time was just unreal. I miss it still. We make our way across taking pictures every few hundred meters of the opera house. We depart from the bridge at The Rocks, Sydney's historic area. Which is kept up beautifully and it was a very cool atmosphere.we were given about 3 hours to hang out and explore the immediate area and were to meet at Wharf 4 at Circular Quay (pronounced key) to head off to the zoo. So a couple of us decided to check out the botanical gardens and just take a nice walk. They keep their city very nice and clean and we wandered through there, fed some cockatoos. We made our way to the quay and got a little something to head and headed off on a ferry to the zoo on the harbour, Torango Zoo. The zoo was a lot of fun. Harland, Ryan and I tried to hit up just about every exhibit and also saw a little presentation on spiders. It was a very well kept zoo and was fun to see.

     We headed on over to the Lands Edge Hostel over in Mosman (a good drive from downtown) and settled in...well not really. We had to hurry to freshen up and get ready for the opera IN the Sydney Opera House. We made our way back to Sydney where the bus driver dropped the group for the opera off and took the others to god knows where, I'm not concerned, they lived (actually over to Darling Harbour). The opera was interesting to say the least. Thankfully there were subtitles but only while they sang so it was tough when they were acting to figure out what they were saying. I overall did enjoy the opera and finally figured out EXACTLY what happened by the end. The end of the first act was hilarious. I can't begin to explain it, but there was a guy humping a dead deer....to say the least. I am happy to say that I saw an opera in the opera house.

     Some people got left behind that night (that was a fiasco all in its own) but I thankfully made it back to the hostel where I fell asleep in probably less than two minutes and pretty damn sure that I did not move at all. On schedule for Saturday were to visit the Blue Mountains, Bondi Beach and the night tour of Sydney. The Blue Mountains were awesome to see. We arrived and saw the Three sisters to the left (cool Aboriginal story behind that) and more mountains all around. We took a rail car (at a 53degree angle) down to the bottom and hiked around for a bit then up back to the top on a cable car. It was nice to see all of that stuff. On our way back I slept and we went to Bondi Beach first thing back. The iconic beach and most famous in Australia if not in the world. It was kinda cool and windy so quite honestly, wasn't that great. Still fun to see though. Then we headed back to the hostel to once again, freshen up as fast as possible and headed into town. We got dinner at Harry's Cafe de Wheels. It was a very famous food stand. I got the meat pie and peas and it was pretty good! Weird cause the peas were mashed though, but hey, Colonel Sanders liked it, so I can too. The coach then took us on a night tour (our hostel host was also with us, PJ, she is hilarious and a lot of fun). Learned a good chunk about the city. Played "Spot the tranny" in Kings Cross, went down Oxford Street, George Street (the main thorough-fare). The city was beautiful at night. A lot of people decided stay and go out in Sydney but a few of us went back to the hostel. But turns out instead of the hostel, we went to the pub (go figure) and we had a great time drinking with PJ and playing thirteen, "to that guy!!!" We were actually so loud that the bar got the cops called on them because of us. So just before closing they ushered us out pretty quickly. Walked down a path to the hostel with nothing but the moonlight, everyone slightly drunk, dressed up. It was hilarious and so much fun. Instead of sleeping, we drank next door outside the coffeeshop (took Pat's wine and everyone pitched in to donate money so he could buy more). It was a great night. Me, Tom, Zack and Bri laughed hysterically after we got inside and had so much fun.

     Sunday we said our goodbyes to PJ. I think she was a little sad to see us leave, she had so much fun with all of us. We went over to Manly beach which was beautiful (a common theme in Australia is seems) and headed on a ferry to the quay, got lunch and then WENT TO A RUGBY GAME!!! I went with Lee, Harlan and Nick. We barely knew what was going on so it wasn't that great but it was so cool to go and see one. Unfortunately the Sydney Roosters lost 18-0 to the Pilreth Panthers. After that we went to Central Station and then over to Chinatown and god lunch/dinner. It was interesting. Had to use chopsticks and basically ate leftover chicken parts. The three of them headed to Darling Harbour to get stuff from the bus while I went to the new hostel we were staying at for the night and I walked around a little bit. It was so nice to be alone and only with my thoughts in this beautiful city. I really enjoyed that. Eventually checked in got settled in and prepared to go out for mine, Jami's and Mary's bday!!!

     So...Sunday night was interesting to say the least. I didn't drink all that much BUT we went to a strip club. Yes...strippers on Sunday. And Tom bought me a private lap dance, but I won't go into details considering this blog is pretty public. Also I got a sorta personal show from a stripper on the poll, thanks to Putt and Audrey for giving me the ten to give to the stripper. So my night was just fantastic if i do say so myself. After we left there was uneventful. Went to another pub and was pretty much empty since it was Sunday night and we finally went back to the hostel around maybe 230am? Passed out and had to check out at 10am. Did that and just explored the city. Most of us went over the the University of Sydney, which was so cool, I want to go there so freaking bad. Definitely looking into grad school here in Australia. From there we walked down George St., over the Harbour Bridge and checked out Luna park for about five minutes then headed back over the bridge and into The Rocks and stopped to get a beer at the oldest pub in Sydney, where I had my first Guinness (I think that is a good combination, don't you?). Then made our way to the hostel to regroup and then it was off the airport!

     So it is true, the airport does close (for domestic flights). So our plan to sleep in the airport was foiled by the (thankfully polite) security officer who directed us over to Maccas. So I spent the first hours of my bday in Maccas (McDonalds) and I would like to give a thank you to Megan Carter for buying me an ice cream cone. Best I ever had. We hungout/slept there till about 345am and headed back to the airport and met this German kid that will be on spring break with us! He was fun to get to know him and learn about his travels up until then. We finally made it to the airport. Sydney was now only a memory (and a damn good one at that). It treated me so well and I loved every minute of it. But now, it's time for spring break Aussie style. Nothing will top it!